Bringing In the New Year

by Grace Lin

In a brightly colored board book, perfect  for the youngest child, Newbery Honoree Grace Lin tells the tale of a Chinese American family as they prepare for the Lunar New Year. Each family member lends a hand as they sweep out the dust of the old year, hang decorations, and make dumplings. Then it's time to celebrate. There will be fireworks and lion dancers, shining lanterns, and a great, long dragon parade at the end!

Lin's bold and gloriously patterned artwork makes for an unforgettable holiday tale. Her story is simple and tailor-made for reading aloud to young children, and she includes an informative author's note for parents, teachers and children who want to learn even more.

Genres: Picture Books, Holiday, Childrens, Family, Cultural, China, Storytime

26 pages, Board Book

First published January 8, 2008

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Grace Lin's work I have learned. This is a simple story about a family getting ready for Chinese New Year. Other books give info on the celebration means and what people do. Grace gives this information through the eyes of a family preparing for it. It makes it more personal. It is still a simple story. For early readers.

The art is colorful and happy. I want to join in the celebration. The kids were more into this book also. They did think all the names being repeated was funny and couldn't understand why all of them were like that.

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun look at all the preparations and joy involved in the celebration of the Lunar New Year. The author's exciting artwork really makes this one special.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

A loving family celebrates Chinese (or Lunar) New Year in this brightly-illustrated picture-book from author/artist Grace Lin. As Jie-jie sweeps the doorstep and Ba-ba hangs up spring-happiness poems, the entire family gets into the spirit, welcoming in the new year with joy and festivity...

Pairing a simple text - no more than a sentence or two per page - with colorful gouache illustrations, Bringing in the New Year is a pleasing picture-book celebration of this important moment in the Chinese year. Like Lin's Dim Sum for Everyone! , which I have also read, it seems aimed at younger, preschool children, perhaps ages two through five, and introduces many customs and objects associated with Chinese New Year. I do feel, much as I did with Dim Sum for Everyone! , that it would have been nice to specify what words like Jie-jie (older sister) and Mei-mei (younger sister) mean, but leaving that aside, this is one I would recommend to picture-book readers seeking simple but appealing Chinese/Lunar New Year titles.

[Alex Baugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

When my kiddo was around 10, she developed an interest in Chinese myths. That interest grew and soon included food, culture and language. So, one bitter cold Sunday, we took the subway down to Chinatown in NYC to see the Dragon Parade welcoming in the Chinese New Year, or Lunar New Year. What an exciting day that was - we ate dumplings, sticky rice cakes and drank lots of tea, watched the dragon wake up and just enjoyed the day out despite the 20°F temperature. Next thing I knew, kiddo was finished with college, spoke fluent Mandarin and off to China.

The Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, is a real family celebration and nothing exemplifies that more that Grace Lin's Bringing in the New Year. This sweet introduction to this holiday, aimed at preschoolers, is as colorful and cheerful as the celebrations themselves.

There are lots of traditions surrounding the New Year, and Lin gives a wonderful overview of these. There is sweeping out the old year (similar to spring cleaning), hanging up the happiness poems and bringing in the lions to scare away the bad luck from the old year, all depicted in bright, happy colors, but with red predominating - red is the color of luck or good fortune.

I liked Bringing in the New Year a lot, except I wish Lin had included somewhere the meanings of the words she used for family members - Jie Jie means big sister, Mei Mei is little sister, Ba Ba means daddy. Whenever I read this book to kids, they think they are Chinese names, not family designations, even though they are commonly used. Other than that, this is a perfect beginner book for kids to start learning about and appreciating the Lunar New Year.

This book is recommended for readers age 3+
This book was purchased for my personal library

Oh yes, according to the Lunar calendar, 2013 is the Year of the Snake, the Water Snake, to be exact.

[Dinah Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

We borrowed this book from the library back in January so we could discuss the Lunar New Year as a family. We talked about how the traditions are very similar to our own New Year celebrations. Bright and colorful illustrations and written by the oh so talented Grace Lin—this was a family favorite.

[Rebekah Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary:
Bringing in the New Year is a story about a young girl whose family is preparing to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Different preparations are mentioned, such as decorations, food, and traditional clothing. The celebration includes a family gathering, fireworks, paper lanterns, and dragons. The end of the book provides the reader with factual information about the Chinese New Year.

Evaluation:
I liked this book because it had many different elements for the reader to experience. The opening and closing pages of the book have illustrations of traditional items that would be found at a Chinese New Year celebration labeled with the correct vocabulary. This would help students better understand the context of the story if they know what kinds of things are traditionally used. Then, the story describes how a young girl’s family prepares for the celebration, and the illustrations give more detail. There is even a fold out page with the dragon so that the readers can see its scale and greatness. Lastly, the book ends with two pages of factual information about the Chinese New Year, so readers can get a more in depth understanding about the Chinese New Year.

Teacher Recommendation:
I would use this story to help teach students about the Chinese New Year. It would help students to better understand a different culture and extensively celebrated holiday. I might first introduce the vocabulary with different pictures to help students build schema before reading the book. Then I would read the story to the class, and let students point out some of the objects that were discussed prior to reading. Then, I would read them the information about the Chinese New Year. After reading the story, I might have the students write about the Chinese New Year, using information from the text, and then make some sort of art (like a kimono or paper dragon) that represents something from book.

[Ting Zhang · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book “Bringing in the New Year” is suitable to use for ages 3 to 6. It was written by Grace Lin. It tells a story of young Chinese girl in the U.S. celebrate the Lunar New Year with her family and friends together. They clean their house, make dumplings, hang decorations, and wear new clothes. After dinner, there will have fireworks and lion dancers on the streets. I like this book. It is a great book for showing customs and rituals of Chinese New Year with everyone. New Year’s is the most important holiday in the Chinese culture. Chinese people follow the traditional Chinese calendar, therefore, the date of New Year’s will not be the same for each year. The Chinese people who come to the foreign countries will remember and never forget this holiday. I can see children and adults with smiles on their faces in every page. The new year bring satisfaction and happiness into their life. They are exiting to forward to a new year. The book provides colorful images. When I read this book, I feel excited and fun. When the teacher read this book to children, children will have opportunity to learn Chinese culture and they can share the way of another countries celebrate the New Year.

[Jasmine Na · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bringing in the New Year written by Grace Lin follows the life of a little girl and her family. The story is about the family preparing for the New Year and shows each step the family takes in order to prepare from, setting up decorations, making food, and dressing up. The story is very short and has simple sentences. The book is made for an audience of Kindergarten to 1st grade. The illustrations follow the story of the book and children can understand the story without the words. The book is colorful and even in the illustrations, it shows different races that celebrate with the family of the story. The book does a great job of showing the New Year Celebration, and compared to other children's book on Chinese New Year, all the ideas and celebrations are the same.

[Justin Langlois · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very cute and educational story about the Lunar New Year. Grace Lin is a great author and her picture books are just as informative as her longer novels for children.

[Christina/ The Blog for Teachers, Readers, & Life! · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ages: 3-7

Bringing in the New Year follows Mei Mei and her Chinese American family as they prepare for the Chinese New Year. Learn about the customs and beliefs behind the Chinese New Year.
At the end of the book, the author elaborates on the Chinese New Year’s importance.
Awards/Recognitions: Reading Rainbow Book, from Newberry Honor Winner Grace Lin
Find more children's books that support diversity and tolerance in my post https://www.teacher-librarian-forlife...

[Rebecca Palermo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary:
A young Chinese girl and her family are welcoming in the new year. The girl and her family go through the preparations involved in preparing for the new near, discussing the Chinese traditions. At the end of the story the new year has arrived and the family celebrates with friends.

Evaluation:
I gave this story three stars because I felt like it is a resourceful tool to use around the time of the Chinese New Year. It is an easy story to read; however, it might not catch the attention of all students. One thing I really liked about this book is the little girl discussed the role of each member of the family when preparing for the new year and all the things that are involved. The pictures show how the Chinese culture dress differently, has different food, different decorations, etc.

Teaching:
I would use this book to teach compare and contract. By using a venn diagram chart I would ask the students to discuss the different new years traditions between our American culture and the culture of the Chinese. This will allow the students to better understand the Chinese culture and give Chinese students a chance to discuss what their new years celebrations are like when celebrating the Chinese New year.

[Teneka Howland · Rating 5 out of 5]

(K - 3rd grade)

Bringing in the New Year was a very exciting and colorful book to read. Being so close to Christmas time and the New Year, I was very happy to run across this book. Celebrating the New Year is always a happy time. I was able to learn about some of the customs and rituals that go along with the Chinese New Year. The illustrator used lots of thin lines that provided an inviting feeling. Learning about a new culture can be awkward at times and by using lots of curved and thin lines, the illustrator gave the book a "flow" that was welcoming and fun.

Related Content Areas:
Social Studies, Language Arts

Lesson Idea:
This book would be an exhilarating way to learn about Chinese culture and how they celebrate the New Year. The teacher could start the lesson by reading this book and then continue it by comparing China and America, geographically. The teacher could point out similarities and differences between the countries and their cultures. The teacher could also have the students practice writing certain phrases in Chinese.

[Andrea Carter · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book 'Bringing in the New Year' by Grace Lin is a colorful book that tells the story of how a different culture brings in the New Year. This short picture book tells the story of a family and their cultural traditions. The books illustrations are so colorful and truly pop out of the pages for the reader's eyes. As you can see, on the cover almost every color is used. The cover shows the character, Mei Mei in a cultural headdress of some kind. When you open the book it has small pictures of cultural items. Such as a, bunny lantern, spring lantern, kumquat tree, broom, firecrackers, dumplings, and a good luck sign. The way this family celebrated reminded of how the American culture celebrates the New Year with good luck's and fireworks. One particular illustration I liked in this book was when one of the pages folded into another creating a three page spread of a cultural dragon.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Grace Lin. Her contributions to quality children's literature are many. Bringing in the New Year served as a good review for my students of many of things we have learned about celebrating Chinese New Year. The details in Lin's illustrations are what I value most -- the chun lian reading 'good luck' on the family's front door, the children covering their ears at the sound of firecrackers, the details on the dragon, and so on. And this is the only children's text I have that references the eye-opening ceremony (which my students replicated in bringing to life dragon puppets they made). I intentionally didn't use this text earlier in our study of Chinese New Year because I needed more context and details for students who had never heard of or previously celebrated the Lunar New Year. But, with a little knowledge, Lin's books comes alive!

[Sean Albright]

1. Text to self – It’s never a bore learning about others’ culture and traditions. It’s interesting for me to see how another culture celebrates a holiday differently from us that we happen share.
2. Remembering: Name two items the Chinese use to celebrate the New Year.
Understanding: Briefly describe how the Chinese bring in the new year.
Applying: What questions might you ask a Chinese individual about their New Year’s tradition if given the chance?
Analyzing: How do the tradtions of American’s and the Chinese compare?
Evaluating: What is your opinion of the trdtions of the Chinese? Explain your feelings.
Creating: How do you predict your tradition will change after reading this book?
3. (2013, December 10). School Library Journal. http://www.booksinprint.com.leo.lib.u...#

[Timothy Luken · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a nice little picture book I loved going through the preparations of the Chinese or Lunar New Year with this Chinese-American family. This story goes through the preparations and the customs preparing for the Chinese New Year. This book does an excellent job of showing the different culture, food and fun that comes with the Chinese New Year. I think this would be a great book for kids to better understand the ideas of different cultures from their own. I think this is great for all ages, but would be perfect for a 1st or 2nd grader as the language used is not too complicated with vocabulary. The illustrations are very colorful and beneficial to the story. I very much enjoyed this book and learning a little about another cultures holiday.

[Elizabeth]

The text is sparse, and I wasn't super into it.

The colorful illustrations fill the pages, and I really liked the snowflakes, but the anticipation of the New Year framed the New Year as an actual entity that could appear, which I wasn't into -- and the sparse text didn't explain much of what was happening, so it was difficult for me to hook into the story.

(Also, one reviewer notes, "I wish Lin had included somewhere the meanings of the words she used for family members - Jie Jie means big sister, Mei Mei is little sister, Ba Ba means daddy. Whenever I read this book to kids, they think they are Chinese names, not family designations, even though they are commonly used.")

[Slayermel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is a story about a family bringing in the Chinese New Year. This book is illustrated with beautiful bright pictures while the author describes the objects that are important to the tradition of bringing in the New Year. We learn about decorations, Clothing and getting ourselves ready, as well as traditional food and festivities.

This was a very interesting book. It’s been a great introduction to Chinese New Year in my classroom which will be celebrated by five of my families. The children have been asking lots of questions and it has allowed our Chinese children to feel proud and help to answer the questions from their peers.

[Mackenzie Wardle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a story about a family bringing in the New Year (Chinese New Year). The family starts by emptying their house of things from the last new year and hanging up happiness poems. Dumplings are prepared, hairstyles are changed, and new clothing is put on for the special new year's celebration. The repeatedly asked question in the story is when the new year is coming. Firecrackers go off outside and the dragon goes around the celebration, which means the new year is coming soon. As soon as Auntie paints the eyes on the dragon, the new year is here. The dragon "awakening" symbolizes the new year.

[AP · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic picture book to introduce pre-K to 1st graders to the Lunar New Year holiday. Her gorgeous art and sweet story capture the warmth and joy of this holiday perfectly. As someone who has my best childhood memories from celebrating Chinese New Year in Taiwan, this book takes me back to those days. My American kids love this book and want to read it even after the holiday is over. This book is my default recommendation, gift to any early years teachers and parents who ask about the holiday. We've given this book to many teachers, and the book becomes a class favorite.

[Krista Ginnis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This books characters are Ba-Ba, Ma-Ma, Jie-Jie, and Mei-Mei. It is a simple short story about sweeping away the old year, and welcoming the New Year.People parade for this festival almost a month ahead of time. They clean houses to sweep out the old year. They pay their debts so the new year begins debt free. The firecrackers symbolize scaring away any evil spirits. Therefore, this correlates to how each year is a new beginning in learning what has happened to be in experience of what is yet to come.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Describes Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year) festivities and food through the eyes of a young Chinese American girl. Sounds like fun to me! I was interested to see non-Asian children also shown celebrating. As the author explains, the holiday has come to be called Lunar New Year because so many other cultures celebrate it. It would sure be nice to watch some colorful fireworks in the middle of drab, dreary winter!

[SJ Cheng · Rating 5 out of 5]

A young girl tells of her family's preparations for the Lunar New Year: hanging red couplets, making dumplings, sweeping the floors, getting a haircut, and wearing new clothing. The celebration culminates in a dragon dance, which is depicted on a large three-page fold-out.

Children will be swept into the New Year's celebrations by Lin's vibrant illustrations. Parents will appreciate the cultural notes Lin provides about the traditions described in her book.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book a Chinese family explains their traditions for the Chinese New Year, and how they celebrate at their home.

I liked this book, because there is diversity in the classrooms. Students who celebrate the Chinese New Year can relate to the book. I think it’s also a good way to introduce students to a different culture other than their own.
Questions- what does your family do to celebrate holidays?
Who comes to your house or do you go to another place?

[Becky B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, simple and clear introduction to the traditions of Chinese New Year celebrations.

This is my favorite Lunar New Year book I've read. It is simple but gets across all the important traditions of the holiday. Grace Lin's illustrations fit so perfectly with their bright colors. There's a note in the back with further information. If you only have time for one Chinese New Year read, I'd pick this one.

[Alex Furlong · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story explains the culture and traditions behind the Chinese new year. The story is able a young girl and how her family get ready for the moment. From making good deeds with people, to cleaning the entire house. At the end of the story the new year has arrived and the family and community celebrate, a lot. This is a good book for any child, Chinese or not because he/she can be taught new cultures.

[Gwen the Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Grace Lin’s bright and simple picture book, the whole family gets involved to prepare for Chinese New Year. On each two-page spread, a member of the family demonstrates New Year duties. Jie-Jie sweeps the old year out, Ma-Ma makes the dumplings, Auntie wakes the dragon. Is it time for New Year yet? This is a perfect introduction to Chinese New Year traditions for young readers.

[Inna Nako · Rating 4 out of 5]

-this book would be great to learn more about the Chinese New Year
-ELLs will be able to relate to this celebration, especailly from the Chinese culture
-a great way to connect is to have the studnets who celebrate this bring in something they own that has to do with Chinese New Year; that way they are familiar with the material at hand

[Cara Farmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed how this story presented the Chinese New Year to children. It presents in in a nice simple way that children can enjoy. The pictures are colorful and invite children to look at them and see new things ever time it is read to them. The back has extra information about the Chinese New Years that could be great to share with the class later in a more condensed way.

[Christina Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A family celebrates the chinese new year. In a classroom this could be celebrated by using the same activities found in the book to teach about how the Chinese culture celebrates their holiday’s. The students could make paper lanterns and a dragon. In the back of the book it explains the cultural traditions of the new year.